THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 16, 1996 TAG: 9604160010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 28 lines
I read about the light-rail project proposed for the I-44/264 corridor between Virginia Beach and Norfolk. Arguments for the project sounded familar: traffic relief and pollution reduction produced by light rail would be worth the millions of dollars to be diverted from road projects.
The arguments are identical to those used for light rail in Portland, Ore., which built a single-corridor rail system. I was in Oregon in March. People were asking where the promised traffic and pollution relief were. I experienced first hand the reduced quality of the roads, and traffic problems hadn't eased in the past decade; in my opinion, they had gotten worse.
Unless light rail is set up as a mass-transit system - similar to the District of Columbia Metro system - serving the whole Hampton Roads area, it won't provide traffic relief for the entire region.
JOHN WOLLENBECKER
Norfolk, April 11, 1996 by CNB